DETROIT, August 29, 2008 - Qualifying for the American Le Mans Series GT2 class is always a contest of tenths of a second. However, today's 20-minute qualifying session for Saturday's Detroit Sports Car Challenge set a new standard with a three-way battle and less than three-tenths of a second to determine the class pole winner. Dirk Müller (a native of Germany now living in Monaco) drove Tafel Racing's No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC to the early standard taking the pole position with a lap more than one second quicker than his nearest competition. However, that time would not last as, on a drying track from an earlier rain shower, another Ferrari and a Porsche joined the battle. The three swapped the class pole position four times in the last two laps. Müller, who will share the Cumming, Ga,-based machine with Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany), dropped to third with two laps remaining in the session. He re-took the top spot on the next lap with a time of one minute, 25.270 seconds on the 2.096-mile, 14-turn circuit. The No. 62 Ferrari bettered that with a time of 1:24.978 until moments later the point leading Porsche took the fastest lap just as the checkered flag waved with a time of 1:24.941. Meanwhile, Jim Tafel (Alpharetta, Ga.) piloted the No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC he co-drives with Alex Figge (Denver) to 11th in qualifying with a time of 1:30.694.

The weather played a critical role in today's practice and qualifying for the two hour and 45-minute race. The first practice on the temporary street course laid out on Detroit's Belle Isle was met with heavy showers. Due to its temporary nature and no testing opportunities, technical director Tony Dowe (Cumming, Ga.) had to weigh the benefits of track time for the drivers with the likelihood that the race will be run under sunny skies. The team, which has won three races in 2008 including the only two street courses run to-date, opted to keep the two Ferraris in pit lane until only 30-minutes remained in the one hour and 30-minute session. On the drying track Farnbacher set the quickest lap in the practice. The sun shined for the hours between the day's two scheduled practice sessions but it wasn't to last. Showers returned before the second, one-hour practice session that led into qualifying. The quick cloudburst left the track wet and necessitated a return to Michelin's grooved rain tires for both the No. 71 Bell Micro Ferrari and the No. 73. Dowe called for a change to slick, dry-weather tires near the end of the second practice and Müller was able to post the session's best lap.

 Qualifying came hot and humid without a cloud in the sky, a different set of circumstances than had been seen all day. Both Tafel entries remained in pit lane waiting for the final drying of the track. With 14-minutes remaining, Müller turned the second quickest time of the session on his second lap. He took pole position briefly on his fourth trip around Belle Isle. Müller's best lap was turned on the eighth circuit of his 10 laps. With no dry condition laps, Tafel came to terms with the No. 73 over 13 laps. His hot time coming on his penultimate lap.

The Detroit Sports Car Challenge can be seen live on SPEED starting at 2:30 PM (ET), August 30. XM Satellite Radio Channel 144 will broadcast the full American Le Mans Series Radio Web broadcast beginning at 5 PM (ET). Live timing and scoring of each on-track session and the live American Le Mans Series Radio Web broadcast can be found at www.AmericanLeMans.com.

DETROIT, August 27, 2008 - The first eight races of the 11-event American Le Mans Series season have been battles for supremacy of the GT2 class. Saturday's Detroit Sports Car Challenge at Belle Isle is expected to be one of the most heated yet as the teams bring their intensity to the tight confines of the last street race of the season. For 2008, the American Le Mans Series included three temporary street courses on its schedule; St. Petersburg, Fla., Long Beach, Calif. and Saturday's two hour and 45- minute event on Belle Isle. Tafel Racing's No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC driven by Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) and Dirk Müller (a native of Germany now living in Monaco) claimed victories at both St. Petersburg and Long Beach. The three-time winning Bell Micro Ferrari (it added a class victory at Mid-Ohio in July) will again be joined in the Tafel Racing stable by the No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC of Alex Figge (Denver) and Jim Tafel (Alpharetta, Ga.). With the August 30 race in Detroit, the Cumming, Ga.-based operations hopes to make it a sweep of the temporary race tracks and secure their place in the trenches that will determine the ultimate victor in the season-deciding events at the Petit Le Mans (October 4) and Raceway Laguna Seca (October 18).

Like all temporary street courses, Belle Isle is narrow and lined with concrete retaining walls. Each of the 14 turns on the 2.096-mile lap is unique and none of the "straightaways" on the course are truly straight. The track's tight confines demand a compromise of the drivers and engineers to squeeze out quick lap times in a car that can still race on the safe-side of the edge for the full duration of the event. The challenge, which is present at every track, is made more-so on street courses because the surface is slick from visitors to Belle Isle. The oil, grease and dirt that has been baked into the asphalt by daily drivers comes back to haunt the racers as the sun brings them back to the surface creating slippery conditions at speed.

In 2007, the first time the American Le Mans Series sports cars came to Detroit, the drivers of the Bell Micro Ferrari enjoyed some of their best results of the season. Müller, who was driving a Ferrari for another team at the time, earned his only podium finish in an abbreviated return to the American Le Mans Series by taking third. Farnbacher, who was co-driving in the No. 73 with Jim Tafel, matched that car's best performance of the season with a fifth in GT2 class in the Motor City.

 Detroit will be Tafel's second Belle Isle event but his first street course of 2008 having sat out of the No. 73 at both St. Pete and Long Beach. Figge has never made a start on a street course in a sports car but has multiple street races under his open wheel racing belt. He has never started an event at Detroit however. Figge and Tafel are coming off their best effort together in the No. 73 after finishing sixth in GT2 class at Mosport International Raceway last Sunday. The No. 71 finished fourth in class.

 The Detroit Sports Car Challenge can be seen live on SPEED starting at 2:30 PM (ET), August 30. XM Satellite Radio Channel 144 will broadcast the full American Le Mans Series Radio Web broadcast beginning at 5 PM (ET). Live timing and scoring of each on-track session and the live American Le Mans Series Radio Web broadcast can be found at www.AmericanLeMans.com.